Dream come true for UP lad
With just six years of serious cricket behind him, Suresh Raina has realised his dream of sharing the Indian dressing room with his idol Rahul Dravid.
WITH JUST six years of serious cricket behind him, Suresh Raina has realised his dream of sharing the Indian dressing room with his idol Rahul Dravid.
“I did share the dressing room with Dravid several times in camps here, but playing with him in the Indian team will be a dream come true for me,” said an elated Raina over phone from Bangalore after being selected for the Indian team for the upcoming tri-series in Sri Lanka.
Raina will be the fifth UPite to play for the country. The other four are Gopal Sharma, Rudra Pratap Singh, Gyanendra Pandey and Mohammed Kaif.
“I was confident of making it to the team,” said the elegant all-rounder, adding, “I gave my 100 per cent in both fitness and skill camps. Moreover, both Dravid and coach Greg Chappell were impressed with my game and aptitude.”
The 18-year-old pushed his case as a sound, industrious top-order batsman, agile fieldsman and tidy off-spinner in his stint at the skills camp, which made him the selectors’ first choice ahead of Tamil Nadu’s Sridharan Sriram and Hemang Badani.
“I was given overwhelming support by all the seniors at the camp, and I never felt lonely here, as I was backed by my senior and State team skipper Mohd Kaif,” he added.
An inmate of the Government-run Gomti Nagar Cricket Hostel here, Raina attracted the selectors’ attention with his scintillating strokeplay for the India Under-19 team during the World Cup in 2004, where he scored a quick-fire 90 off just 38 balls against Scotland.
He struck his maiden first class century against Andhra last season, besides some other notable performances in the Ranji Trophy.
“I was waiting for this opportunity since long and I will try to justify my selection,” he said, adding, “Slow wickets in Sri Lanka will be a good opportunity to prove my worth.”
Hailing from Ghaziabad and better known as ‘Sanu’ amongst his friends here, he joined the Lucknow Sports College in 1999, before joining the Gomti Nagar Cricket Hostel in 2002.
“Ever since I took up the game, I laid special emphasis on fitness, besides focusing on batting and bowling.”
This will be his second visit to Sri Lanka. In 2002-03, he was a member of the India Under-17 team, where he scored two half-centuries and took 14 wickets.
As far as his performances in domestic cricket are concerned, the young boy thumped the ball with audacity and produced some fantastic knocks in the Deodhar Trophy and the Ranji one-day tournament.
Raina notched up 482 runs in the Ranji Trophy for Uttar Pradesh this season. He was tenth on the run-scorers’ list with a strike-rate of 65.40, the highest among the top 20 run-getters. In the four-day version, a century eluded him, but Uttar Pradesh regularly rode on his half-centuries.
He top-scored with 55 off 65 balls with five fours for the India A side in a warm-up game against the visiting Pakistani team at Hyderabad earlier this year.